Editor’s Letter The future is anything but boring

Senior Features Editor Editor’s Note

Has the entire car world gone electric? Pretty much.

ne year has passed since I sat down to pen a column for our

Oprevious annual Future Cars issue. So much has happened since then. The biggest news was we awarded not one but two of our Golden Caliper trophies to electric vehicles. The Rivian R1T captured our 2022 Truck of the Year honors, and the Lucid Air won our 2022 Car of the Year award. Our 2022 SUV of the Year, the Genesis GV70, will be available as an EV soon, as well. The Hyundai Ioniq 5—a real stunner—has taken over Los Angeles. At one point we considered creating an EV of the Year award, but we resisted by arguing (correctly) with ourselves that the entire industry is going electric. It’s InEVitable. The future is plugged in, and sooner than later, we’ll just call “electric cars,” “cars.”

Don’t believe me? Have a flip through this issue and read what we’ve dug up about the automobiles you’ll be looking at, lusting over, test driving, and then buying in the next few years. Yeah, you’re probably going to be shopping for an electric car in relatively short order. Forget about the entire automotive industry investing billions upon billions of dollars converting its product portfolio to electric, and just look out your window. At the time of writing, gasoline costs more than $5/gallon nationally, and here in L.A. gas prices have breached $7 for premium. But that’s now; let’s look at what’s about to arrive.

Americans love pickup trucks. We buy more than 2 million of them every year. And the two biggest names in the game—the Ford F-150 and the Chevrolet Silverado—now or soon will come in EV form. The Ford is called the F-150 Lightning (you might’ve heard of it), and the Chevy is the not-quite-as-well-named Silverado EV. In terms of automotive history, it’s difficult to wrap our collective brain around just how seismic an event this will most likely be. Those two powerhouses adopting electrons might one day prove to be the pivotal straws that break the oil industry’s back. But wait! There’s more! Two more big EV pickup dogs are about to join this fight: Ram is going to launch a full-size electric pickup truck in 2024, and although the much-hyped Tesla Cybertruck is comically delayed at this point, the company will eventually build and sell it. No, really.

You know what Americans love more than pickup trucks? SUVs. We cannot buy enough of them. Especially car-based crossovers. You know, the ones that are essentially minivans cut to look like off-roaders. Our thirst is unquenchable, our desires boundless. Automakers are aware of this, and boy, oh boy, is the onslaught coming. As you peruse this issue, you’ll notice electric SUVs comprise the majority of what’s on tap. From Buick to Honda to Fiat to Chrysler to Lexus to Lotus to Lincoln, seemingly every automaker and their mother is on the cusp of offering an electric SUV, including an EV Jeepster and EV Wrangler.

Then there are some electric cars coming—like, real cars—that I’m pre-drooling over. First and foremost is the Dodge electric muscle car. Dodge has survived until 2022 largely because of the brand’s undying devotion to “Hellcat All the Things.” Well, a Hellcat engine is a supercharged, gas-burning Greenpeace trigger. But what if Dodge figures out how to make a rowdy EV? What if it cracks the code and creates the obnoxious, four-wheel-burnout machine that’s needed to get the old dudes sitting around on beer coolers bitching about “computers in cars” to get off their duffs and join the EV revolution? If any brand can do it, it’s Dodge. There’s an electric Corvette coming, too, but Chevy’s not saying a peep. I hope it rules.

But hang on a minute. You don’t care about EVs. You want internal combustion, even if it’s partially electrified, damn it! Fret not. As you’ll read, we have not one but two new Lamborghinis coming, and they will still feature engines with pistons and valves and pipes that burn the high-octane stuff. Your Bitcoin lost most of its value, and you can’t really be thinking about Italian exotics? Hey man, we were just talking about Corvette a moment ago, and we’re positive we’re about to see a slew of hybrid ’Vettes featuring electric motors combined with big ol’ V-8s. Also, a new Mustang is on the way, and although there might just be a hybrid variant, the GT’s heart will remain a 5.0-liter red, white, and blue V-8.

As car people, there are many things you can say about the future, but you can’t in good faith call it boring. Our look at what’s coming begins on page 22. Q